Our time has often been called the 'age of the expert'. This is certainly true. The rising tide of information makes an increasing number of people know more and more about less and less. We all too often lack the universal person, who has an adequate though not always detailed knowledge of many areas of human life and is consequently able to pass an adequate judgement. 

There are those who feel that this type of man is gone. It is also argued that one cannot be universal and expert at the same time. But this is not true. Dr Felix Somary, who passed away only three decades ago, was such man. On the one hand he was one of Switzerland's leading bankers and certainly his time's outstanding expert on economic crisis . He was one of the very few to predict the big crash of 1929, and thus helped those who trusted him to preserve their assets amidst general ruin. But Somary was also a universal man. Those who knew him well were aware of his profound knowledge of the arts, literature, ancient cultures, history, politics and, last but not least, science. It was a great experience to be a guest in his wartime apartment at the Shoreham Hotel in Washington, where he gathered not only the best brains of statesmanship and military life, but also those scientist who were instrumental in the greatest discoveries of that stormy period.

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